


(The Red) Thread that ties us

by sash4kyu (emotional_fool)



Category: EXO (Band), NCT (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, City on cloud, Guns, Love/Hate, M/M, Mutants, Rebellion, Red String of Fate, Science Fiction, Soulmates, Two worlds, Utopia, Violence, enemy to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:20:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24018895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emotional_fool/pseuds/sash4kyu
Summary: Jongin has lived all his life on a city floating among the clouds and knows nothing else. Sehun has seen things he really shouldn’t have.
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Oh Sehun, Lee Taeyong/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten
Comments: 7
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all....First of all, I hope you all are safe and doing well. This was supposed to be my entry for Project 94 round 1 but life happened and I never finished it.  
> I am posting this here in hopes that I will be able to finish this soon.  
> I have a bit ready so I will start posting soon.  
> If you will give this story a chance, it would mean the world to me.
> 
> Now, on to the story....enjoy ~~

A prophecy was made centuries ago when humanity came into existence - A day will come when the humans would have to pay for their sins, with their life. It was said that only the rightful will survive and all others will perish into dust.

The day or rather the years came and took away almost everything that once decorated our planet.

The rightful who remained behind though, didn’t remain so righteous years later. The utopia does not exist without dystopia. If there is good there is bad too, if there is God then there is a Devil too.

~☆~☆~☆~☆~

Two people from two different worlds, hating the person at the other end of the string without ever meeting them are brought together in an unexpected turn of events.  
What happens when these two, tied by fate but with hate clouding their hearts are the only key to save this world. 


	2. Sector 88

The minute hand was just one short of hitting the glowing twelve on the clock when the young man with platinum white hair, sleeping soundly just a second ago jolts up into a sitting position. His wide eyes don’t even take a full second to adjust to the darkness clouding his quarters. A single sweat bead rolls down his temple towards his left eye while his panting breaths take longer to come to a normal speed.

As the hour hand align perfectly with the neon six, the beseeching sound of his alarm fills the silence of his dark room with cacophony. With a sigh, the young man with olive skin and almond blue eyes loosens his death grip on the quilt and leans back towards the white headboard in one quick slide. His long slender fingers reach the switch hidden from plain view just beside his bed frame easily and the moment he push down the button, the drapes to his right slides open instantly to the outside world.

There is no sign of sun outside. The first rays of sunlight that every one of them long to see and feel across their skin absent yet another day from their life. The clouds like a loyal companion envelopes their world in grey and gloom again this morning.

To the young man in one of the highest towers in Sector 88, the atmosphere outside appears to be reflecting his own mood. At this rate, he thinks, the grey blanketing their floating world would be a complete analogy of his entire life.

Colourless.

Was his life. In more ways than one can imagine.

Bare feet pads onto the shiny glass floor devoid of any stain or dust. Pristine. Almost artificially so. Like how their life was. Like how the air they breathe was. Like how mostly the people here were from inside and out. He was one of them but could never be like them. It suffocated him. And yet he still knew nothing else but this world. He does not know what lies beyond the clouds floating around his world. 

As he leaves the confines of his room to make way towards the living room, the light coming from there ignites a dip in his stomach. He is not alone today in the house. And that realization is enough to induce more anxiety in his still nightmare-traumatized head. 

“Jongin.”

One syllable and the young man, Jongin, halt in his steps. Still rooted to his spot he does not turn around. Holding on to his breath and momentarily closing his eyes waiting for the next few words to cut through the silence. And probably through his heart too.

“It is today.”

_What is today?_

It takes Jongin a minute to understand the implication behind those three words. _It is today._ His brain keeps repeating it in his head almost unconsciously.

Suddenly the air around seems to suffocate him. Even if the rare “Krypton” tree in the middle of their living room is doing everything in its power to provide them breathable, almost pure oxygen.

It is inevitable. The confrontation. Something he cannot escape. And delaying it even more will only agitate his father further than required.

As he slowly, almost reluctantly, turns around to face his father, a slight glimmer of red catches his eyes and his breath hitches for a moment before the red disappears like a mirage. His father looks at him straight in the eyes and then his gaze drops towards his hand instantly. First glancing at his left and then searching his right. It is unnerving. How his father expects to see it there. As if he could, even if it had appeared today - on his twenty fifth birth day. But he cannot, no one other than a person himself can see their red string. The force with which his father focuses on his hands to assure himself that indeed his son, his only son, does have a red string tying him to another makes Jongin’s heart constrict with invisible vines.

There is a silent question in the man’s gaze. A question that seems to have been thrown at Jongin since forever. At least since he was expected to have his fate tying him to some stranger through a red string. It feels like a lifetime ago.


	3. The Rebel Leader

There is nothing but dirt, rumble, debris and scrape for miles. No sign of any habitation or vegetation. No cattle or plantation. It is like a desert - barren and dead. Bricks everywhere, debris of collapsed buildings that were never cleared. Who would clear it. There was no one left. Or that’s how the ones left wanted The Hunters to see.

Among the deserted area, a speck of dust runs on his long legs. Panting and falling and standing up again to run harder. He needs to, if he wants to live. Three hooded bulky figures running behind him. Clad in all black with surgical masks of the same color covering their faces. Heavy machine guns in their hands which are currently pointing to the boy running ahead of them. It is not his first time, infiltrating the base camp. But this is the closest he has been and maybe that's why he was discovered. It was a good thing he was still outside the fence and was able to escape before they had him at gunpoint. But for how long he can outrun them, he doesn't know.

Although the boy is aware of the fact that the hunters will not shoot him but still if they caught him they will do much worse to him. And so with extra will to survive he runs hard and blindly without looking ahead or thinking about what turns to take or which path to follow. He was running towards the gas station when just as he rounds a corner, a hand from nowhere grabs him and pulls him inside the collapsing building. He is unable to see who it is. For a second, the boy fears it's one of the hunters. But the other figure is taking him further inside the building. He has no idea where they are going, if this stranger even knows the way around this maze of debris and dirt. From the way the stranger is stepping around potholes, and waving his way at right corners, the boy has no doubts that it's not the first time this stranger is taking this route. As long as they are away from the hunters, he does not mind following this guy. He is alone anyway; even if the stranger tries something funny, the boy is sure he can overtake him easily. The sudden noise from outside has both of them stopping and pressing their backs to a dark corner. The bricks are pressing uncomfortably into their backs and the boy looks sideways and seas the stranger from the front for the first time. He has his face covered in a mask similar to what the hunters outside were wearing. The boy shivers at the prospect of walking into a trap by taking the help of this stranger.

The moment they hear the footsteps going far away from where they are hiding, the stranger waves to follow him into a dark corner. The boy is skeptical to blindly follow the man but their unwanted company outside forces him to make a decision and before he knows it, his feet are already trailing behind his may-be-saviour.

"I am Ten", the boy tells in order to fill the silence. There is no harm in telling his name when he has already accepted the stranger's favour. If he were to be the enemy, Ten would have been dead by now. The stranger does nothing to acknowledge if he even heard Ten, nor does he talk back. He is only staring ahead, walking through sharp corners, climbing down holes and secret passageways. Ten have been scraping around this area for long, but he has never once followed this path or something similar. Only if he knew, these rubbles were home to secret hideouts, he would have explored it beforehand.

Suddenly, the stranger stops dead and Ten, who was busy in his own thoughts, crashes into his back. The stranger silently scowls but says and does nothing more. He then crouches down and starts wiping the dirt from the floorboard with his bare hands. Ten looks at him confused only to startle back when the stranger opens a secret door into the floor. He climbs down first, waving at Ten to follow him down. For a second, Ten falters in his step thinking if he really should go ahead. Thoughts like 'What if it is a trap' keeps swirling back into his head. He knows he has to make a choice - choosing between a dozen hunters outside or this mysterious stranger, with possible comrades at wherever he is taking Ten. Both the options seems unfavourable to him but there is something familiar about this stranger that makes Ten to trust him. And One thud from this stranger has him climbing the ladder and closing the door back on his way down.

The moment his feet lands on much more stable ground, Ten mesmerizes at the sight before him. It is some kind of a hallway, in a condition much better than what they have been traversing through. Cemented walls replace the brick debris and the air seems to be not as stale as it was on the outside.

Ten startles when the stranger starts to pull off his mask. The air on Earth is contaminated. Masks are the only things, except of course the hunters, that stand between life and death. 

When the stranger completely pulls off his mask, the face that greets Ten takes his breath away. Not in a "I have never seen such a handsome man before" way but in a "holy shit, why does this face look so familiar" way. A door on the far left corner opens and in walks out another man, shorter than them both but bulkier nevertheless. He too wears no masks and the smile that graces his face on seeing the stranger falters the moment he notices Ten's presence. His body suddenly takes the stance of an alert predator. His eyes, like of a hawk, do not stray away from Ten's.

"Sehun, who did you pick up again from the streets?", the newcomer directs the words towards the stranger but without taking his eyes off of Ten.

And then it clicks. Where Ten has seen this stranger.

'Sehun.'

'The rebel leader, Sehun.'


End file.
